CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONE OF FIFE. 581 



the remains of Crinoids, Aviculopecten sp., Trochus hiserratus, and 

 Naticopsis elliptica in the Carboniferous Limestones of Cults, Fife. 



Myalina Verneuilii, M'Coy, is associated with ScMzodus aocinifor- 

 mis, Myacites svlcatus, Sanguinolites sp., and Lingula squamiformis 

 in shale at the base of the Carboniferous Limestone series, east of 

 St. Monans, Pife. 



And the Permian species Myalina Hausmanni, Goldfuss (in which 

 is included M. squamosa and M. septifera oi King), is found in 

 the shell-limestone of Durham and the Lower Limestone of York- 

 shire with the marine fossils characteristic of those rocks, though 

 in the highest beds of the Magnesian Limestone, where this species 

 becomes in a measure gregarious, its associates dwindle down, in 

 Durham, to ScMzodus duhius, Pleuropliorus costatus, and Littorina 

 helicina, and in Yorkshire to S. duhius only. 



Moreover Lepidodendron and other vegetable remains are met 

 with in the Encrinite-bed at Pittenweem, and in the equally un- 

 questionably marine deposit to the east of the caves at Eanderstone 

 Castle ; so that the presence of such remains with Myalina modio- 

 liformis scarcely indicates more than that the shell existed within 

 reach of vegetable drift. 



Notwithstanding tbe repeated occurrence of marine beds in the 

 Calciferous Sandstones, the proportion which they contribute to 

 the aggregate thickness of the series is not great. The bulk of the 

 strata (where fossiliferous) contains the remains of plants and of 

 other fossils that cannot with any certainty be classed as marine. 

 The evidences of the prevalence of vegetable life are numerous ; 

 and first among these are the number of thin coals. 



Altogether I have observed in the Pittenweem and Anstruther 

 section about fifty seams of coal, counting every thing from three 

 inches upwards, and there may be some that have escaped my 

 notice. Most of them are coarse in quality, and the thickest rarely 

 exceeds two feet, the majority being much less. But though not 

 thus of much commercial value, they are nearly all true coal-growths, 

 resting on fireclays charged with Stigmarice. These coals ""are pretty 

 regularly distributed through all but the lowest 500 feet of strata. 



Stigmarian roots and rootlets are met with in many fireclays, 

 shales, and shaly sandstones where there are no overlying coals or 

 traces left of the vegetation which these roots must have originally 

 supported, thus indicating many horizons of tree-growths that have 

 not resulted in the formation of coals. 



Then all through the series the strata are more or less marked by 

 vegetable remains, often very fragmentary and all apparently drifted. 

 These remains chiefly belong to Lepidodendron and its de- 

 tached leaves and fruit, and to the ferns Sphenopteris affinis and 

 CycJopteris flihellata. We have also seen that several of the marine 

 beds contain pieces oi Lepidodendron and other wood, often incrusted 

 with Spirorbis, along with their more characteristic fossils. 



So that from the coals themselves, from the beds with Stigmarioe, 

 from the plant-beaiing strata generally, and from the drift wood in 

 the marine limestones there is evidence enough of the abundance of 



